Numerous types of hearing devices are known and have been developed to assist individuals with hearing loss. Examples of hearing device types currently available include behind the ear (BTE), in the ear (ITE), in the canal (ITC) and completely in the canal (CIC) hearing devices. In many situations, however, hearing impaired individuals may require a hearing solution beyond that which can be provided by such a hearing device alone. For example, hearing impaired individuals often have great difficulty to follow a normal conversations in noisy environments, encountered at parties, meetings, sporting events or the like, involving a high level of background noise. In addition, hearing impaired individuals often also have difficulties listening to audio sources located at a distance from the individual, or to several audio sources located at various distances from the individual and at various positions relative to the individual.
A known hearing aid system comprising a secondary source for audio has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,034 B2. The known hearing aid system comprises a directional microphone worn or otherwise supported by a person speaking or by the hearing aid user, as well as detection and switch circuitry to select which of the primary and secondary audio sources should be directed to the hearing aid circuitry. In operation, the detection and switch circuitry receives a signal transmission (preferably wireless) from the secondary audio source and determines whether the signal received is desirable. If the signal transmission is desirable, the circuitry selects that signal for coupling with the hearing aid circuitry. If the transmission signal is not desirable, the circuitry selects the signals from the primary audio source for coupling with the hearing aid circuitry. The criterion for selecting the signal of the secondary audio source is based on the signal strength. If the incoming signal of the secondary audio source is greater than a predetermined threshold, the signal of the secondary audio source is selected for transmission into the ear canal of the hearing aid wearer.
Similar techniques as the one described above are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 7,317,805 B2 and EP-1 296 537 A2.
The known teachings are only directed to detecting sound sources or they try to qualify sound sources. Natural behavior of a hearing device user is not taken into account.
Many objects, aspects and variations of the present invention will become apparent to one of skill in the art upon review of the prior art and in light of the teachings herein.